Reach For The Heavens (alternate ending)
by Arion Prower
Summary: Aparently, due to flame reviews on my last story, nobody wants to read this one. Well Screw You! (to all those who flamed) It's a good story and this one is a setup to the next one I'm writing. plz R+R
1. the situation

All characters in this story are copyright of sega and sonic team, not of me  
  
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Reach For The Heavens  
  
Galaxies away, on the planet Mobius, lives a group of friends. These friends, however, aren't your normal group. They are Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower the Fox, Knuckles the Echidna, and Rouge the Bat. As of right now, Sonic is sleeping after finishing his last chilli dog, Knuckles is gathering the Chaos Emeralds, and Tails is showing Rouge how to skateboard.  
  
"Just firmly plant your feet on the board, I'll start you off by teaching you how to stay on the board. Now hang on." Tails said. He gave Rouge a little push, she went about 15 feet then lost her balance and stumbled to the ground. "It's OK, Rouge. I wasn't that good when I first started either."  
  
"Even still, you were probably better than me." said Rouge, "Your tails probably gave you better balance."  
  
"You'ld be surprised I... Do you feel that?" It was an earthquake like trembling from underground. Just then, a part of the ground split from underneath Rouge. It was Dr. Eggman in his drill machine. Rouge was standing on the ground that rose from the drill, sending her stumbling backwards and twisting her ankle.   
  
"Rouge!" Tails yelled. Suddenly, out of nowhere comes Shadow in a black blur of speed, taking Rouge hostage and speeding of in the direction of the Death Egg. "Hey, Eggman, what gives?"  
  
"Oh, it's quite simple really." Eggman said with a giant smirk on his face, "You gather the Chaos Emeralds and bring them to the Death Egg, or else you never see Rouge again." then he drilled back through the ground, laughing maniacally in the process.  
  
"What?! Hey! Come back here!" Tails proclaimed, but he was too late, Shadow was gone and Eggman was down the hole. "Oh, man. I'd better tell Sonic." With that, Tails flew off towards Knothole.  
  
~*~ 


	2. the first step / rogue hero

Meanwhile, back at knothole, Sonic and Knuckles were conversing about meaningless things. "I'm telling ya, the top button is THE main button. It literally makes or breaks the shirt." Sonic stated. "What do you care? you don't wear shirts!" Knuckles countered.   
  
"Sonic! Knuckles!" Tails yelled from afar. "We've got trouble!"  
  
"What's up, Little buddy?" Sonic asked.  
  
"He probably had a run in with a mushbot, the weakest of all bots." Knuckles muttered under his breath, mocking Tails' inexperience as a fighter.  
  
"It's Rouge," He explains, "Shadow and Eggman kidnapped her, we gotta get her back now. He said we have to trade the Chaos Emeralds for her."   
  
"Trade the Chaos Emeralds? He must think we're nuts if we're going to just hand them over to him. There must be another way." Knuckles said.  
  
"Not really, they took her to the Death Egg."  
  
"The Death Egg? He'll probably have that place crawling with Guardbots. We had better come up with a plan." Sonic said.  
  
"No! That wont do! We have to act now!" Tails screams as he grabs the emeralds from Knuckles and flies off.   
  
"Tails? Wait up!" Sonic and Knuckles both scream, but they're too late to stop him. So they chase after him on foot.  
  
'I'm sorry guys.' Tails thinks to himself 'You just have to trust me.'  
  
~*~ 


	3. catching up

As Sonic and Knuckles chase after the rogue, Tails, they are stopped by a waterfall that blocked their path. "No problem," Knuckles said with enthusiasm "I'll just glide us across. hop on Sonic... Sonic?" Knuckles turns to see Sonic trembling with his arms wrapped around a tree.  
  
"T-t-that's OK, y-you can just g-go on without m-me." Sonic said nervously.  
  
"What's up man? It's just a little water."  
  
"Do you really want to know?"  
  
"Well not really, we have too... What's going on? Oh no! You're not going into a flashback are you?"  
  
"It all started when I was 4 years old..."  
  
"Ah, crap."  
  
"...I was playing at the beach when it happened. There I was, a young Hedgehog, not a care in the world. Then Dr. Eggman attacked. My family and friends were all captured, I was in the water at the time in a water tube. Just to be cruel, he popped it and I almost drowned. I didn't know how long I was out for, but one thing was certain, I was never going back in the water."  
  
"Dude, you're being a wuss. Just climb on my back, I can glide the both of us across."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Yeah, it's not that far and you wont even get wet." Sonic climbed on Knuckles' back and closed his eyes, slowly the made their way across the waterfall. "See, that wasn't that hard." Sonic opened his eyes and realized that they were on the other side.  
  
"Thanks, bud, I never would've made it without you. Now let's catch up to Tails."  
  
~*~ 


	4. the Death Egg

I'd better land or else I'll be seen." Tails said as he was dropping from the sky. He found a pile of crates he could hide behind.  
  
Sonic and Knuckles came speeding out of the forest to see Tails hiding behind some crates. "Tails." Sonic called out. Tails turned to see Sonic and Knuckles with very disappointed faces.  
  
"Sorry guys, but we gotta get Rouge back."   
  
"But handing over the Chaos Emeralds isn't going to do much. We'll get Rouge back, but Eggman will have the Chaos Emeralds and you know that the Emeralds bestow unlimited power upon the user and... AGHHH." Knuckles' speech was cut short when he and sonic were grabbed by a Huge Robotic hand and taken into the Death Egg.  
  
"NOOO!!!!" Tails cries, "No, now what am I supposed to do, Dr. Eggman has Rouge, Sonic and Knuckles and I'm all alone. NO!" He assures himself. "No, I can do it, I have to do it."  
  
Tails makes a daring dash towards the Death Egg and almost instantly he is spotted by Swatbots.  
  
"Stop, intruder!" the Swatbots said repeatedly. But it didn't slow Tails down, he was on a mission to save his friends. He was dodging Sawtbotbots left and right, never once looking back to see where they are. Once he made it to the doors, he just kept on going, gaining speed as he went.  
  
"This place is pretty much a straight away," Tails thought to himself, "I can see the central room now" he came to a screeching halt as he entered the central control room of the Death Egg. Up on a platform, Tails could see Dr. Eggman just laughing at him. Also, in three separate glass, Tails could see him friends, trapped.  
  
"You think you're going to save your friends with brute force don't you? well let me save you the trouble. Just give me the Chaos Emeralds, and I'll let your friends go."   
Tails was just about to toss the Emeralds to Dr. Eggman, when he remembered what Knuckles said, "...Eggman will have the Chaos Emeralds and you know that the Emeralds bestow unlimited power upon the user..." "Knuckles is right, I can't give him the Emeralds." Tails thought. "You'll never get the Emeralds, Egg-butt!"  
  
"Oh, really?" Dr. Eggman protested. "I don't think you're in any position to be ordering me around." He pushed a button on the console next to him. "As you see you have no way out, my lad." The doors had automatically closed and a door to a new room opened up to Tails' left. "Say hell to my latest Creation. E-102! Attack the fox!" Two, glowing, red lights shone from inside the room, a robot figure, that looked a lot like a frog, crept out of the room.  
  
"Targeting... Identify: Tails, Freedom Fighter... TERMINATE" The robot computed.  
  
~*~ 


	5. an unexpected turn of events

Tails gasped as the robot was about to fire at him when out of nowhere came Shadow, drop-kicking the robot into a wall, shattering it to pieces.  
  
"WHAA?!?!... Shadow! What's wrong with you? That was one of my best creations!" Dr. Eggman wailed.  
  
"Relax," Shadow said to calm the obese man. "I don't need to hide behind robotic monstrosities to fight my enemies. I'll fight him one-on-one." This made Tails nervous, and it made Eggman a little annoyed.  
  
Tails knew he wasn't a match for Shadow, but he gave it his best shot anyway. He charged at Shadow with his fists flailing. But Shadow was too strong, he punched Tails in the gut then kicked him in the head, sent him flying into a wall and the Chaos Emeralds dropped from his grasp. Slowly, Tails got to he knees. He clenched his fist and slammed it on the ground.  
  
"It can't end this way, it just can't. I have to keep trying," A tear starts up in his eye, "I have to keep fighting," More tears gather and start to trickle down his face and onto his nose, "for my friends, for all of Mobius." A tear falls onto a Chaos Emerald, "I have to win." the emerald started to glow.  
  
"Go ahead, little boy." Shadow taunted, "Cry! Cry you little baby! Cry! AHAHAHAHA.... huh?" Shadow saw the emerald glowing. Tails kept on crying, more and more he wept, his tears hitting more emeralds as they fell from his face. Soon, all the emeralds were glowing, brightly.  
  
The six of them gasped at the Emeralds' light. Tails stood up. The power emanating from them caused them to float. Tails placed his hand over his chest, where his heart is. He could feel the rhythm of his heart, it was the same rhythm in which the Emeralds were glowing. Every thump of his heart caused the Emeralds glow brightly. The Emeralds started to circle him now. Faster and faster they circled him until it looked like a ring of coloured light, floating around him in mid air.   
Suddenly, a bright beam of light literally burst through the ceiling, landing on Tails. Sonic and Knuckles knew all too well what was happening, the same thing had happened to them in earlier times. For the first time in his life, Tails was going 'Super'.  
  
Tails could feel the power of the Emeralds surging through his body. Everyone just stood in awe as the transformation continued. Slowly, his fur turned from an orange-ish colour to a golden, his eyes changed they're colour from baby blue to emerald green, and the strangest of all, he grew an extra tail (to aid him with his speed and flying capabilities). The Emeralds faded away, back to Angel Island where they originated. Tails now had everything he needed to save his friends. Increased strength, speed, and flight powers.   
  
Shadow, previously frozen in fear, makes a b-line straight towards Tails. With his eyes closed, Tails stands still and takes every hit Shadow dishes out. Shadow is now trembling in fear and he tries to run away, but Tails' speed has increased to the point where he can run a mile a second and effortlessly gets in front of Shadow without him even noticing. Shadow bumps into Tails and falls backwards. Tails grabs Shadow's arm and tosses him into the air. As Shadow starts to fall, Tails spins around. He bats Shadow through the steel wall with his three tails. Tails turned to see Dr. Eggman with his eyes wide open in amazement. "Let my friends go, and I'll spare you." Tails said to Dr. Eggman.  
  
Dr. Eggman pressed a button that cause to floor to open up and a triangular platform, covered in Swatbots, rise from underneath. There must have been 75-100 Swatbots on the platform. "Try and stop them all, Foxboy." Eggman teased. Tails walked up and knocked over the one in front, causing a chain reaction. Eggman watched as his Swatbots fell over like dominoes, breaking as they hit the ground. Eggman, again wide eyed, looked at the heap of scrap metal that laid on his base floor, but when he looked up Tails was gone.  
  
"One more chance," a voice from behind Eggman said, he slowly turned around to see Tails standing a foot away from him. "let my friends go." Eggman clenched his fist and punched Tails right between the eyes. "You don't seriously want to fight me, do you?" Tails said, with Eggman's fist still between his eyes.  
  
Eggman couldn't believe it, his punch didn't even faze him, Tails didn't even flinch. Eggman put his hand on the console an realized a remote was right there. He grinned evilly. "Tell me something, Tails." he started with a maniacal voice. He grabbed the remote and pushed a button on it. In an instant, the three glass chamber that held Tails' friends filled with water, catching the trio off guard. "How long can your friends hold their breath?" Tails looked over to see his friends choking underwater. His eyes went wide in shock. Now he was angry, Tails grabbed the morbidly obese man and threw him through the floor to the levels below, then flew off to save his friends.  
  
Tails had to punch and kick the thick glass a few times before it would break, his friends fell to their knees grasping for air... except for Rouge, who wasn't breathing at all. "ROUGE!!!" he screamed and tried to use CPR to bring her back. For more than 15 minutes Tails tried, and tried, and tried, but she was gone. Then, with the now dead Rouge in his arms, he held her close and wept. Tails cried and cried. Sonic took the body from Tails as he ran over Knuckles. Holding his shoulders tight, Tails desperately asked, "Is there anything the Emeralds can do? Please, Knuckles, there must be something. TELL ME!!!"  
  
"Tails....." Knuckles trailed off, "I'm sorry, the Emeralds can't bring people back from the dead. I'm sorry. There's nothing we can do."  
  
Tails looked at him and shook his head. "No," he said quietly "no there has to be something." Tails took Rouge's body from Sonic's arms and held it tight against his, and walked down the long hallway to the exit.  
  
~*~ 


	6. the end?

It was the day of the funeral, almost all of the forest creatures have gathered to the site where Rouge was to be buried. All except Tails. There was a knock at Tails' bedroom door. "You in here, Tails?" It was Sonic. But Tails wasn't there. Instead, on his pillow was a note. Sonic walked in and picked up the note and read it.  
  
Dear Sonic,  
  
Sorry, but I'm not going to the funeral, I wouldn't be able to stand it.  
  
"I don't blame ya." Sonic said aloud, then kept reading.  
  
I've gone to clear my head. I'm not going to say where and don't bother looking for me either. I'll come back sooner or later, I just need to be alone with my thoughts for a while. Don't worry, I'm not going to go after Eggman for what he did. Killing him wont bring her back. Ugh, even writing his name makes me mad. Again, I'm sorry. I'll see you in a while  
  
Your Friend,   
Tails   
  
Sonic put down the note and looked out the window into the sky. "See ya, little buddy."  
  
The End? 


End file.
